


Tag!

by TiyeTiye



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Breaking and Entering, Indian Character, Marvel Universe, Multi, Tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 16:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11855052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiyeTiye/pseuds/TiyeTiye





	Tag!

Djoti Kudtarkar would never be what someone in her family would call a _nice girl._ In her family, a _nice girl_ like her was supposed to grow up and go to a _nice school_ to be an engineer, or a doctor, or a businesswoman, to meet a _nice boy_ and to settle down somewhere, live a _nice life_ , and give her parents three to five grandkids. 

She had no doubt that her parents loved her as much as they could, but they'd always seemed a bit…confused by her. Why did she want to join track and field instead of take dance lessons, like her older sister? Didn’t she want to have a Rangapravesham, like all of the other women in the family? Why did she bury her nose in books on cryptography and codebreaking instead of joining the robotics club - wouldn’t she like that just as much instead? And it would look so much better on college applications. Why couldn’t they tell people about Djoti’s work with S.H.I.E.L.D.? All the Aunties keep asking about her and they're supposed to have nothing to tell? Who was she working for now that S.H.I.E.L.D. has gone under? Who is this Maria Hill woman? And how exactly did Djoti know Tony Stark the Iron Man? 

Djoti knew they worried. She knew that her mother had had more than one nightmare about something horrible happening to her, and that her father included her in his prayers when he went to temple. She let them know that she was safe in her weekly calls home, told them again and again that she didn't go out on missions, that she was just an analyst, that Avengers Tower had some of the best security in the world, not to mention a few literal _superheroes_ living in it. But still they would worry, like all parents do.

However, Djoti was pretty sure her poor parents could never picture their middle daughter trying to break into the apartment of a Russian ex-assassin on the 37th floor of Avengers Tower at 3:29 in the morning. 

If only her lock picks would cooperate. 

It was a silly game, really. It had started nearly three months ago early one morning when Djoti had come across Natasha sleeping on a couch in one of the common rooms on her way to the gym. It was after the Avengers had come back from a mission, and Nat was still in her field gear, she must have meant to just sit down for a few minutes the night before but had fallen asleep, and was still there, hours later, sprawled out over the couch with her mouth slightly open. For all Nat’s talk of “red in her ledger” Djoti thought she looked kind of cute. 

She had intended on leaving her there, but as she was tiptoeing towards the door a pile of forgotten office supplies on one of the tables caught her eye. Biting her lip to stifle a giggle, Djoti carefully picked up a pen and a pad of yellow post-it notes. She wrote:

_You must losing your touch if someone like me can sneak up on you! Hope you're more on your toes when you’re out in the field! Glad you made it back safe. —Djoti_

Djoti peeled her note off the pad before creeping back to the couch. Nat was still dead to the world. A much braver person might have even said that she was snoring. Holding her breath , Djoti carefully, ever so carefully, reached out her arm and laid the post-it right on the wave of red hair covering Nat’s forehead before retreating towards the door. She let her breath out in a shuddering exhale as she called the elevator to take her down tot he gym, and smiled to herself at her apparent success.

That cocky feeling lasted for approximately 20 hours. The next morning, Djoti woke up in her room to the scratchy feeling of a lime green post-it note stuck to her cheek. She peeled it off to find a few lines of Nat’s elegant cursive:

_I’ll give you that one, but YOU better be on your toes now! Because TAG, YOU’RE IT. — N_

And from that moment, the game was on. 

The rules were simple. Notes could only be delivered at night, while the other player was sleeping, and must be left within arms reach of the sleeper. Neither Djoti or Nat were not allowed to ask F.R.I.D.A.Y. to lock the other out of their apartment or warn them when the other was creeping in. Any sort of improvised security or countermeasures were to cause no bodily harm to the other person, and any attempts to break in to an apartment couldn't cause any damage. And beyond that, anything was fair game.

Back and forth they went. Djoti had taken to wedging her bedroom door shut with a chair, and the window in her bedroom didn’t open, yet three days ago, she’d awoken to a note with ‘ _Gotcha Bitch!’_ left on her pillow. She knew that Nat had been on a 24-hour stakeout all day yesterday, and Djoti hoped that she would be so tired and dead to the world that she’d be less likely to wake up during her fumbling attempts at subterfuge. 

It was a good plan.

Djoti had even picked her lock before. 

Except now the fucking thing wouldn’t open. 

Nat must have changed the lock to something more secure since the last time Djoti had broken in. 

Djoti knew theory behind lock-picking, she had watched video tutorials for what seemed like hours. Just insert your tension wrench into the bottom of the lock, apply gentle pressure, then scrub back and forth with a pick until all of the pins set, but she’d been fiddling around with the delicate bits of metal or five minutes and still no luck. 

“Fancy meeting you here doll.” The warm voice coming from behind her made her jump and bang her head on the doorknob. She yelped and clapped her hands over her mouth at all the noise, dropping her lock picks, and thn slowly turned to find Bucky Barnes standing behind her, wearing a white undershirt, pair of pajama pants, and a devilish smile. 

“Oh no,” Djoti whispered, feeling her face heat from embarrassment. She and Bucky had met each other a few weeks ago and had shared their first date just last Saturday, with another planned for this week, and this was NOT the kind of impression she wanted to make on him. “This is not what it looks like!"

“Really?” he cocked an eyebrow. “Because from here it looks like you’re trying to break into to Nat’s apartment.” 

“Yes. I mean, no. Well, kind of, but I swear it’s not what you think and I swear I don't do this kind of thing all the time and you must think I’m some kind of deranged monster and will never want to see me again but would you believe me if I said it was all just for a silly game?” Her voice trailed off as she realized Bucky was softly laughing at her. “ _What_?” 

“Nothing, it’s nothing. Its just, you don’t exactly strike me as the criminal mastermind type.”

Djoti shrugged and gave him a hopeful smile. “Yeah. Maybe that’s why I’m so good at it…?” she said, voice trailing off weakly. 

He laughed again, then studied her for a moment, face serious. Djoti was worried he might be thinking of a nice way to cancel their next date, but he surprised her. “Want some help?” 

Her jaw dropped. _Technically_ there was nothing in the rules that said she couldn’t have outside help. “Okay.” She gave him a hopeful smile and picked up her lock picks from where they'd fallen. “Sure.” 

Bucky gave her that same grin that made her skin tingle and knelt down behind her, encircling her with his arms. His metal and flesh fingers gently covered hers and guided her tools back into the lock on Nat’s door. He was so close Djoti could feel the warmth of him radiating against her back and hear the miniature gears turning within his metal arm as he shifted. 

“Now here’s the trick,” he began, breath tickling the back of her neck as he guided her hands. “You want to put _just enough_ pressure on your tension wrench that the pins will hold once you get them aligned, but not so much that they’ll jam and get stuck out of alignment.” The tension wrench shifted just a fraction under their hands. “Feel that?” he whispered against her neck. “We got one.” 

“Did you learn this when you were….when you….while you were still a prisoner?” 

Bucky’s jaw clenched a little at her question. “Nah. Picked it up before. Back when Steve and I were still kids.”

Djoti turned to look at him over her shoulder. “Why Bucky Barnes, were you a teenage delinquent?”

“Hey now, cut me some slack, doll. It was the Great Depression. Nobody had any money, nobody was hiring, and uh, sometimes I would umm, _find stuff,_ shall we say, for people that needed it. Pair of shoes for my Ma when her old ones wore out, some medicine for Steve when he got sick, stuff like that.” 

“And you never got caught?” 

“Nah, sweetheart I was careful.” He winked. 

“The Robin Hood of Brooklyn.”

“Oh no. Just did what I could to help my family. It wasn’t right, but it helped keep us going.”

Djoti turned back to the door and tried to pay attention at Bucky eased her through the motions of aligning the tumblers, but the feel of his hands on hers and the smell of his skin kept making her wonder what his hands might feel like on other parts of her. Eventually the door clicked open under their combined hands and Djoti quickly leaned forward to keep it from bumping into the wall, Bucky’s metal hand on her back to steady her. She grabbed the handle, and brought the door back until it was almost closed before turning back to Bucky. 

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“You’re welcome.” His blue eyes flicked down to her lips and back up to hers. “Can I have a kiss for helping?”

Djoti blushed. “Usually those come at the end of a date.”

“And this doesn’t count? We talked, did something together, I told you a story from back when I was a kid. Sounds like a date to me.” 

Djoti bit her lip and leaned toward him. His hand came up to rest on the curve of her neck, but she surprised him by turning to whisper in his ear. 

“Not right now. I have to concentrate.” 

He chuckled and it ignited something warm and liquid deep within her belly. 

“Well far be it for me to distract you, doll. Go get her. I’ll be waiting.”


End file.
